Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins is pitching a pay raise for city workers. The mayor wants to increase minimum wage for city employees to $13 dollars an hour. Perkins has sent a memo to City Council members urging them to support his plan to phase in the increased pay over the next two years.

Perkins says this would cost the city about $500,000 for the rest of this year. It would require an amendment to this years budget. He is asking the council to support his proposal.

His plan also includes a 2.75 percent raise for all non-civil service city employees. According to a memo from the Mayor to the Council, that will cost the city $2.6 million dollars in 2022. Perkins says his goal is to move to a merit-based pay raise system in 2023.

Perkins says "in December of 2020, we provided a pay raise for our civil service employees and I committed that I would do everything that I could to ensure that we address pay throughout the City of Shreveport and this plan outlines the commitment made."

The low pay for city workers has resulted in problems recruiting and retaining workers. Back in April, KEEL News learned trash pickup in the city was delayed 

Part of that problem was lack of staffing. The city had to work with a private vendor to help the city with trash pickup so the city can stay on schedule.

At the time Perkins said: "we have fulltime employees and we have temporary workers. And a lot of times, we have staffing issues. We are working to improve on that."

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